Wouldn't it be nice if...

[Roasted]

There was some sort of crazy boot program that would allow users to put any bootable ISO file onto a flash drive and have them multi boot at the splash screen?

I'm looking at it like this. I use quite a few LiveCDs. I utilize several different Linux operating systems... whether it's out of curiosity reasons or to try them out to see if they're worthy to install at work.

I'm cleaning up my case of CDs I use at work. I work in tech so I have all sorts of troubleshooting stuff here, not to mention anytime a new Fedora, openSuSE, Mandriva, BackTrack, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc etc comes out, I bring a new copy of it to work.

It would be so nice to just have some sort of crazy boot loading flash drive that's like 32gb in size and I could just toss whatever bootable iso to it I wanted.

Imagine having one flash drive to boot:

Fedora 12
Ubuntu 9.10
Kubuntu 9.10
Xubuntu 9.10
OpenSuSE 11.2
Clonezilla LiveCD
GParted LiveCD
ReMasterSys
Knoppix LiveCD
Super Grub LiveCD
Helix Forensics LiveCD

etc...

Maybe someday. :)

[NoaHall]

There was some sort of crazy boot program that would allow users to put any bootable ISO file onto a flash drive and have them multi boot at the splash screen?

I'm looking at it like this. I use quite a few LiveCDs. I utilize several different Linux operating systems... whether it's out of curiosity reasons or to try them out to see if they're worthy to install at work.

I'm cleaning up my case of CDs I use at work. I work in tech so I have all sorts of troubleshooting stuff here, not to mention anytime a new Fedora, openSuSE, Mandriva, BackTrack, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc etc comes out, I bring a new copy of it to work.

It would be so nice to just have some sort of crazy boot loading flash drive that's like 32gb in size and I could just toss whatever bootable iso to it I wanted.

Imagine having one flash drive to boot:

Fedora 12
Ubuntu 9.10
Kubuntu 9.10
Xubuntu 9.10
OpenSuSE 11.2
Clonezilla LiveCD
GParted LiveCD
ReMasterSys
Knoppix LiveCD
Super Grub LiveCD
Helix Forensics LiveCD

etc...

Maybe someday. :)

What? You mean like Unetbootin bootloader?

[Roasted]

What? You mean like Unetbootin bootloader?

Haven't used unetbootin. It'd just be nice to instead of burning all of these CDs and DVDs I have that I can just get one big fat flash drive, toss whatever ISO I want on it, and it shows up in the boot loader ready to run the LiveCD, install, etc.

[NoaHall]

Haven't used unetbootin. It'd just be nice to instead of burning all of these CDs and DVDs I have that I can just get one big fat flash drive, toss whatever ISO I want on it, and it shows up in the boot loader ready to run the LiveCD, install, etc.

Use it then. :)

[Roasted]

Use it then. :)

You're telling me unetbootin is one big fricken boot loader to handle whatever ISO I toss on the flash drive?

[NoaHall]

You're telling me unetbootin is one big fricken boot loader to handle whatever ISO I toss on the flash drive?

It should be able to, I've found it can boot most things.

[Roasted]

It should be able to, I've found it can boot most things.

wtf... I must look into this. now.

[HappyFeet]

I work in tech so I have all sorts of troubleshooting stuff here

And you don't use Hirens Boot CD? Any tech worth his salt, uses it.

[Frak]

And you don't use Hirens Boot CD? Any tech worth his salt, uses it.
I've been using WinPE for the longest time. When you work around Windows computers, not surprisingly the best LiveCD is one made from Windows.

[Redache]

I install everything from Flash Drives now, I had one bad DVD burn too many.

Unetbootin is handy for this sort of stuff as well.

[CharmyBee]

Unetbootin only allows you to use one ISO at a time so that's annoying. I wanted to have a stick full of ready-to-boot distros to try.

[Roasted]

Unetbootin only allows you to use one ISO at a time so that's annoying. I wanted to have a stick full of ready-to-boot distros to try.

awwwwwwwwwww. You're kidding.

That's a killer right there...

However, I could probably get a batch of 2gb flash drives on ebay pretty cheap. That wouldn't be so bad I guess. But it'd be nice to have 1 massive setup...

[Nerd King]

How about this solution.. you need 2 flash drives. One will be your final device.

1. Get ISOs.
2. Use Unetbootin to setup ISO on flash drive A.
3. Boot from flashdrive A, and use live usb to install OS to flash drive B Make sure partition leaves sufficient space for other OSs.
4. Reboot to main OS.
5. Repeat steps 2,3,4 with each ISO.

PS you'll need one hell of a big flash drive for flash drive B!

[Frak]

I keep thinking, it wouldn't be difficult to allow standard ISOs to boot from a boot loader. The only restriction is that the boot loader would need to read from a partition that it can, ehem, read.

[NoaHall]

How about this solution.. you need 2 flash drives. One will be your final device.

1. Get ISOs.
2. Use Unetbootin to setup ISO on flash drive A.
3. Boot from flashdrive A, and use live usb to install OS to flash drive B Make sure partition leaves sufficient space for other OSs.
4. Reboot to main OS.
5. Repeat steps 2,3,4 with each ISO.

PS you'll need one hell of a big flash drive for flash drive B!

You can resize partitions on the flash drive, make lots of 700 MB partitions.

[CharlesA]

I created a bootable flash drive with a bunch of ultilites on it using GRUB4DOS (mapping isos sucks big time). I've read that GRUB2 can boot isos directly, but I've not tried it)

Link (http://hak5.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13842).

[oldos2er]

I keep thinking, it wouldn't be difficult to allow standard ISOs to boot from a boot loader.

http://michael-prokop.at/blog/2009/05/25/boot-an-iso-via-grub2/

I haven't looked into this much, but it could be fun to play with.

[chris4585]

Unetbootin only allows you to use one ISO at a time so that's annoying. I wanted to have a stick full of ready-to-boot distros to try.

Wrong

A while ago I mastered a process of using unetbootin to make as many distros (that will work with unetbootin) work as you wish. Look down this thread to review what I did.


http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1056220.html

[qalimas]

Wrong

A while ago I mastered a process of using unetbootin to make as many distros (that will work with unetbootin) work as you wish. Look down this thread to review what I did.


http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1056220.html


Awesome :D Doing it now with my collection of ISOs. Thank you! :popcorn:

[Gizenshya]

Wrong

A while ago I mastered a process of using unetbootin to make as many distros (that will work with unetbootin) work as you wish. Look down this thread to review what I did.


http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1056220.html

orly?

I'mma have to check that out